Established in March 2002, Lulu Bandha's is a community of blossoming yogis tuning into their own alignment. We are not committed to one particular style, rather we are interested in offering techniques that might help you relax into yourself.

We believe that the best way to learn how to teach yoga is to start teaching yoga. The authentic inspiration to share and connect with others will naturally guide you. And the teaching creates the questions. The questions create the fertile ground in which learning can occur.

We also know that deepening the understanding through trainings and workshops with yogis already on the path can help grow the heart, strengthen the confidence and connect you with a supportive community.

We do not rely on one particular style. Our method of practicing and teaching yoga is inspired by the desire to connect. We emphasize the skills of feeling, seeing, trusting, compassion, truth and clarity of communication.

Our techniques are standing on the shoulders of the yogis before us. So one can taste the flavors of Krishnamacharya's lineage through the rivers of Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and Desikachar. We call Erich Schiffmann our Papa Bear and Patricia Sullivan our Matriarch. Paul Grilley's insight into the connective tissue and subtle anatomy runs deep through our understanding of how things work. Ravi Ravindra, with doctorates in Religious Studies, Philosphy and Physics opens the windows to understanding the great texts. Uma Goswami is our Bhakti Yogini. And we are continually learning from who shows up.

As teachers, our personal journeys are the ground from which we share. And our efforts are towards Right Alignment with our Selves.

Krishna said to Arjuna, "No learning can happen without love." If you feel a connection and draw to study with Kira Ryder and the other teachers of Lulu Bandha's, that is all that really matters.

We highly recommend attending some classes live or online or watching some of our yoga lessons before arriving for your first day of school. Steady and consistent time with a teacher is how the transmission takes place.

Read through how the school works and what is expected of you. Connect in and introduce yourself. Fill out the application and feel into the possibilities. If coming here feels opening, compelling, new, and not necessarily logical, then it might be a match.

We believe that the best way to learn how to teach yoga is to start teaching yoga. The authentic and heart felt inspiration to share and connect with others will naturally guide you.

This training will help deepen our personal understanding of the practice. It will remove some of the mystery of how the techniques work and why they are so.

Through practice and discussion, we aim to develop and or refine our techniques of teaching. We cover the usual subjects of safe sequencing, ideas of alignment, language and touch, but with an emphasis on holding the space and cultivating the soil for the "a-ha." Because until the insight comes from within, very little can happen.

You do not graduate with a script. This makes teaching initially more difficult, but possibly more open for the expression of You. Together we are hoping to uncover your connection to your Yoga and foster its sharing.

Certification is a confusing topic. Right now the Yoga Alliance is the most ubiquitous standard of Certification offering 200 and 500 RYT Certificates.

Lulu Bandha's is a Registered Yoga School (RYS) with Yoga Alliance. There are other national certification boards in existence and development.

When you first start teaching and are applying for jobs with institutions that do not know you like Fitness Clubs, Spas, Cruise Ships, and Resorts, you will most likely be asked for proof of certification. Once people know you, and you have established a trusting relationship and demonstrated yourself as a competent teacher, you will most likely not be asked for your credentials.

Upon completion of Lulu Bandha's 200 Hour Program, you are qualified to apply with the Yoga Alliance as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT).

Yes. Deepening your connection to what is True will cause all that is false to dissolve. Your life as you know it will fade and a new life that you never imagined possible will blossom.

Life does not get easier because we start practicing and teaching yoga, in fact sometimes it can feel harder as we begin to participate more fully, but ultimately our experience becomes smoother and richer, more relaxed and magical. We promise.

Peeps have come from all over the country to be in Ojai and attend the Lulu School.

Check out the local accommodations and connect in if you are looking for a room in a home.

We are working on developing our online school. Join the Garden to be notified when it's live.

Not yet. We hope to soon.

Let us know that you are interested.

• Let us know that you are interested. If you are currently practicing at the studio, tell us live. Or send us a note.
• Fill out the Application.
• Jump in. The primary module is "Teaching Yoga, Side A," but you can start taking certain workshops now. Take a look at the schedule.
• Join the Garden and start a Yoga Blog. Observe your teachers. Begin recording the sequences you do in class. Write about your yoga practice, your insights, your struggles, your questions. Become mindful about your relationship with the practice.
• Start making an effort towards a personal practice if you don't already have one.
• Start teaching now. Teach a friend a few of the things you already know. A simple hip stretch, an easy hamstring stretch, a breathing technique or guided relaxation. Start to give birth to your voice. A tiny little bit of teaching effort will help create the soil for the lessons to take root.

The more yoga teachers the better!

The intimate connection between a student and his/her first teacher is mysterious and amazing. The more different people teaching, the more likely someone new is to connect.

It is true that the yoga teachers on the covers of magazines are usually young, female, beautiful and flexy. But most people on the planet don't look like that and need a teacher they can relate too. Again, it is your purity of heart that is doing the teaching anyway.

Know that you will be a teacher in training the rest of your life. The learning never stops.

In the beginning, the process can seem like we are simply accumulating knowledge to share. But eventually, we begin to pay attention to what is showing up at each moment and allowing that to draw us forward.

"The student in front of you is the object of the teacher's meditation. The teachings are behind you." Sonia Nelson

That said, the fastest you can complete the Teacher Training in is a year. We track your hours up to three.

We are continually offering gigantic lists of books to read. One member of our community recently stated that she wants a shorter list. So below is a shorter list. But the books you are drawn to depend on the questions you are asking, so let us know if we can help guide you.

• Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness, Erich Schiffmann
• The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V Desikachar
• The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, Ravi Ravindra
• The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Shambhala Classics
• Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky
• A Gradual Awakening, Stephen Levine
• Mindsight, Dr. Daniel J. Siegel
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lews, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., Richard Lannon, M.D.
• Innerwork, Robert A. Johnson

Many of these books are available next to Lulu's at Bhavantu and at Quest Bookshop at Krotona.

• Paul Grilley's Anatomy for Yoga, and Chakra Theory and Meditation. Both Available at Pranayama.
• Erich Schiffmann's, The Wave and the Ocean Talk.

• Ravi Ravindra's Sutra Study Course, recorded at Krotona, February 2008. You can order a set directly from Rochelle. shelly_at_krotonaschool.org
• Erich Schiffmann has free downloads of his talks and classes on his site.
• Alan Watts. You can download some of his talks for free on itunes. You can purchase talks from this site.